Always Gold
by stellierox
Summary: Sequel to She Is. The 5-0 team has a new murder case that revolves around one's of Grace's friend's father. AU where Lori doesn't exist, established relationship between Steve/OC, Sam Hadley. I do not own Hawaii 5-0 or their characters, and I make no money off writing these stories, please read and review xo xo xo
1. Ahala

**Disclaimer: I'm South African. We don't produce CBS TV- dramas.**

**This is a sequel to She Is, if you haven't read it, I suggest you do, since it's basically the story that introduces my OC, Sam Hadley, who anyone is welcome to use, I just ask that you please politely ask me first! Even though yes, I can't do a thing if you use her without my permission except for sending you telepathic- guilt-vibes all the way from Cape Town to where ever you are!  
Forgive me, I know that there is a 'Chin And Malia', I just don't know anything else about them, so if it is incredibly OOC, just review or PM me with the details!  
I haven't even watched season 2 yet, it's not out here, and all I've watched is episodes 1, 2 and 3 on the internet. I know, I'm a rebel.  
I hope that if you read this, you enjoy it, and if you enjoy it, you leave me a review to tell me just how much :) **

'Alala

I was woken by the sunlight warming my face through the sash window above my bed. I groaned, pulling the covers over my head and burying my face deeper into my pillow. Someone chuckled.  
I jumped.  
Someone pulled the covers away from my head.  
"Good morning, beautiful."  
"Mmmmm." I grumbled, pulling the covers back over me. _Relief_.  
"Sam," Steve hummed at me, shuffling closer under the duvet, rubbing my shoulders softly. "You've gotta get up," he whispered into my ear before kissing it gently. I turned, met by Steve, Steve's face, Steve's lips that were smiling, Steve that was cupping my jaw and kissing my forehead with gentleness that I thought him incapable of. I pulled him closer, and pushed my nose into the crook of his neck, feeling him warm against me, feeling him vibrate with a chuckle as his warmth was invaded by the tip of my cold nose. "Sam, it's nine-thirty."  
"That's impossible," I murmured into the soft skin of his bare chest, kissing the sparse layer of hair under my lips. "I wake at five every morning. Always have, always will."  
"Actually, you wake at four- fifty eight. I used to wake up at five, until you denied me my extra two minutes sleep."  
"You're not helping your side of the argument, sweetie." I somehow pulled him even closer to me, sliding a leg between his. He groaned, sliding the hands that were on my back lower.  
"We did wake up at five, Sam." I smiled as the memory of earlier this morning flooded back.  
"Well, that explains why I'm tired now," His chest rumbled as he laughed quietly into my hair. "And why my back is a little stiff," I rolled my shoulders experimentally, feeling his fingers running over the muscles, making me shiver.  
"We need to get up, Grace's soccer game is at ten, and Danny will break my fingers one by one if we're late." I shook my head, protesting as he rolled away and got out of bed.  
"C'maan," I complained, but stopped when I saw the impressive muscles of his torso flex as he stretched gingerly.  
"Jesus, you really wore me out babe," He winked at me, smiling that cheeky smile that three months ago I would have found insufferable, but now found infectious.  
"Okay," I smiled back, getting up and getting dressed. Steve pulled on a long sleeved white t-shirt and rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, artfully concealing the intricate tattoos on his upper arms. "What's with the sleeves?"  
"Don't wanna look like a thug, I'll scare the tiny tots," He smiled again, finding a pair of jeans and putting them on. He grabbed a pair of socks and his now-famous Vans that I told him I liked so much, and walked around the bed to me.  
"Get dressed." He put on the menacing face reserved for suspects, and kissed my forehead. "Coffee?" He called over his shoulder as he went downstairs.  
"Please!" I found a nice blue tank top and my denim cut offs, and sat down again to put them on, as well as a pair of sneakers.  
I padded downstairs to my cup of coffee.

"Go Gracie!" Danny was out of his seat whenever his daughter got within 10 feet of the ball, cheering her on and blatantly ignoring the people sitting behind us, who craned their necks around him in order to see what was going on. I laughed, seeing Chin wink at me as I leant back into Steve, feeling him wind his arms around my waist.  
"You guys are pretty lovey-dovey there, hey Super SEAL?" Kono giggled, leaning forward and smiling at us. Steve's arms immediately retracted.  
"I didn't notice." His voice was gruff behind me. Kono laughed louder, covering her face with her hands as I pulled his arms back around me, settling into him, feeling him kiss my ear when he thought the others weren't noticing. But I saw Chin's wise smile, as he turned to watch the game, linking hands with Malia, his thumb rubbing slowly over her hand. I couldn't help smiling, and Kono caught my eye, rolling hers and miming sticking a finger up her throat. She motioned to me, and we leant over (me untangling a disgruntled Steve's arms from my waist) to hear each other over the crowd and Danny's incessant shouting. It sounded like one of Steve's irritably mentioned 'carguments' that happened so frequently, he sounded angry. I guess it was just from the practise of shouting at Steve.  
"They may not seem the PDA types, but trust me, the moment Steve's not there," She stuck her tongue out in disgust. "It's like they're French or something. I mean, worse than you guys." She winked. "Which is saying something, believe me."  
"Screw you!" I laughed.  
"No, not you, it's him! He smiles more and more every day! It's unnerving, I mean, really, it literally makes me nervous." We quickly withdrew as Danny sat back down, smiling like he hadn't just been screaming at the field full of ten year olds. I looked around.  
There was a huge turnout, really, for a 3rd grade soccer game. The schools had pooled their money and gotten a field with huge stands, and it was full, with people of all sizes and ages. Local, ha'ole, grannies and grandpas, older and younger siblings filled the stands, with some people even sitting on the steps between the seats. And next to the stands were stalls with sodas, coffee, burgers and malasadas, something that had delighted Danny as we walked past them.  
Grace had the ball. Danny was talking to Chin, and Grace had the ball. And she was close to the goal.  
"DANNY!" I hit him, and as he turned round to complain I was up out of my seat.  
"Gracie! That's my girl!" I was soon joined my Danny, Kono, Chin and Steve, and together we made one hell of a noise.  
Goal.  
Grace scored a goal, and the next thing I heard was the biggest noise I had ever heard, what with Chin and Danny roaring with excitement, with Kono screaming in a way that was sure to leave her without a voice tomorrow, to Steve's wolf whistle that he had probably been trained on how to do. It was ear-splitting, and as Grace walked back to her team's side of the field, she waved in our general direction. Really, the girl would have to be deaf to not hear the racket going on around me.  
"That's my daughter!" Danny had turned around to tell the people behind us. They swore at him.  
The crowd died down, and as the ref got ready to blow the whistle for the next centre pass, there was silence. At least, it was as silent as a crowd of 500 people would get. I watched the referee take a deep breath in. Someone screamed.

*Cue theme music*

"COD was head trauma, but she went through a lot before the kill shot was delivered. All the blood and bruises come from the wounds inflicted before death, as if they were inflicted post mortem, there would be little to no blood loss; on account of the victim's heart not beating any longer." Max looked up at us as we leant over the body.  
The woman looked to be in her early forties, wearing a dark blue long sleeved t-shirt that had been rolled up to the elbows, and jeans. She had dark reddish-brown hair. She was beautiful, but the large purple dent on her right temple disfigured her attractive face. There were multiple cuts and bruises on her face, as well as defensive wounds and bruises on her arms.  
"Her name's Meredith Gibbard, her husband and daughter discovered the body, and then the girl screamed bloody murder." Danny spoke up behind us, and I turned to look at his expression of recognition.  
"You knew her?" I asked. He nodded.  
"Her daughter's one of Gracie's friends. We met a couple of times, she seemed nice enough." He ran a hand through his hair.  
"When did this happen, Max?" Steve was crouched next to the body, scanning the body for ovious trace evidence, when he asked the question.  
"I will give you a more accurate time of death once I have the body in my lab, but I would guess that it happened about an hour ago, during this event, definitely." Steve looked up at me.  
"So we were here."  
"You couldn't have prevented something like this, Steve." I assured him.  
"But there could have been witnesses. Late arrivals, someone on their way to the bathroom, you know?"  
"We've got the place on lock down; no one gets in or out." Chin said, motioning at me. "Come, we can address the crowd. See if anyone saw anything."  
"Do you think anyone would speak up?"  
"You're good at reading people. I'll ask the questions, you look for the answers."

"Good morning everyone." Chin's voice sounded ten thousand times lower when amplified by the big red and white megaphone that he held to his lips. "I'm sure that you're all a little irritated and curious as to what happened that made it necessary for no one to leave." There was a murmur of confirmation from the crowd, and Chin looked at me, lowering the megaphone.  
"How much detail?" He leant over, away from the school principal, who was trying to eavesdrop.  
"As little as possible. Basics."  
"Sounds good." He turned, speaking to the crowd again. "The scream that you heard before the referee's whistle was that of a girl, who discovered a dead body in the parking lot." Whispers immediately began, the crowd sounded like leaves in the wind.  
"The murder took place about an hour ago, and even though the school urged everyone to come and stay the whole day and support all of the teams, I'm sure that many of you didn't, and came in late, and were intending to leave early. This means that there could have easily been witnesses. So, if you saw anything out of the ordinary, anything at all, please make yourself known." There was movement throughout the whole crowd, people looking in front, next to, and behind them in order to catch a glimpse of anyone who raised their hand or called out. Except for a girl in the second row. It was hard to see from the distance we were, but all she seemed to be doing was looking down at her feet. I jumped down from the team's bench and walked across the field. All eyes on me. I fought the urge to turn scarlet, and made it across without tripping or something horrifying, and hopped on to the bleachers, coming to a halt in front of the red headed girl. She looked to be in her teens, and was wearing a Death Cab For Cutie t-shirt, black jeans, and Chuck Taylors.  
"Hey there." She looked at me through her long red bangs.  
"Hey." She said softly.  
"That's my favourite band, you know." I smiled reassuringly.  
"Mine too." She brushed her hair out of her eyes.  
"Long Division is my anthem." She smiled. "I was wondering, if you could come and speak to us about what you saw?"  
"Sure." She took a breath in. I motioned her to follow me.

"How did you know?"  
"How did I know what?"  
"That I saw something."  
I leant back in my chair, surveying the teenager, named Rayne, through narrowed eyes.  
"I'll tell you, if you tell me what you saw."  
"Fine." Rayne looked down at her tightly clasped hands, her red bangs falling forwards into her face. "I, uh, was selling burgers with Alex,"  
"Alex?"  
"My friend, we were raising money for prom."  
"Okay, go on."  
"I was just on my way to the bathroom," but when I got to the parking lot, I heard people arguing, so I didn't wanna, you know."  
"I get it." The door opened behind me, and I turned to watch Steve come in. He sat on the chair next to me in our boardroom. We had decided not to put the poor girl through sitting in the cold, dark interrogation room with the concrete walls. Our knees touched, and I involuntarily moved closer to him, feeling his warmth through our pants legs. I heard him give a little snort, as I redirected my attention to Rayne.  
"Whose voices could you hear?" Steve asked.  
"It was a man and a woman. I didn't recognise their voices."  
"Can you remember exactly what they were saying?" I asked gently.  
"Yeah, I can."

**Rayne is crouched behind a station wagon, listening to a man and woman fighting.  
"I thought you said you were leaving him?"  
"I am, I promise! I love you, you know that!" The woman started crying.  
"I saw you together, Meredith."  
"What?"  
"I saw you!"  
She hears a thud, and peers under the car, seeing a woman lying down on the ground. She holds a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, and crawls to the bushes at the edge of the parking lot, climbing through them and running away.**

"I locked myself in one of the stalls in the bathroom for about twenty minutes, and then I came out. By then, you guys were already at the parking lot."  
"So you didn't see the man that was with her? Not even the back of his head?" Steve ran a hand over his face.  
"I didn't see anything, I was so scared; I just-"  
"It's okay." I cast a scolding glare over Steve, who immediately nudged my knee, a sorry expression on his face. "You weren't obliged to stay and put yourself in danger." Rayne looked reassured, unclasping her hands.  
"Thank you for talking to us." We all stood up, and I ushered her to the door, where her parents were standing outside.  
"Wait." Rayne turned around, a quizzical look in her eyes. "How did you know it was me?"  
"What?"  
"How did you know that I saw something?" Steve turned to look at me, eyebrows raised.  
"Oh, that. Well, when Chin asked the crowd if anyone had seen anything, obviously everyone was interested in who had possibly seen something, but you weren't, because you knew who had seen something. Everyone was looking around them, except you. That's all."

**Well, that's the end of chapter 1.  
Let me know if you think that I should continue!**


	2. Pa'ani Kalai

**Thank you so much for the reviews; hugs and kisses to you all, I'm glad you followed the prequel too, as now you've got the background to this story. Thank you also for giving me the go-ahead to continue with this, as I've got a really good plot that's all finished, just need to fill in the good bits.  
I solemnly swear to update as regularly as possible, just note that as regularly as possible DOES NOT mean regularly, I'm incredibly busy at the moment, though I do have a couple of hours to kill right now, so I'll see how far I get with this.  
I'm going to stop babbling now!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a single right to Hawaii 5-0, and the only impact that these stories have on my life is the deterioration of my eyesight.**

Pa'ani Kalai

"Okay, so what's our game plan?" Chin said as we all looked at the crime scene photos on the tech table. "What do we know?"  
"Victim was having an affair." Kono piped up.  
"Whoever killed her saw her with another man. Another very violent man, who has a very strong right hook, evidently." Danny added.  
"She loved her killer." I said. Steve looked at me strangely, before concluding,  
"So, the killer was either the lover or the husband. Let's see who it was. Bring the husband in." He turned to walk into his office.  
"Steve, you can't just bring the guy in like he's a suspect." I stood up. Steve paused, turned back, and looked at me strangely once more.  
"But he **is** a suspect." Tact was never his strong suit. "He has motive and opportunity, we need to get an alibi from him before we discount him front the case."  
"At the moment, he's a victim. At least let us go out and see if he looks guilty before getting him to come in. Look, maybe it was the boyfriend; we can see if the husband knew who he was." I reasoned.  
"If it wasn't him and we hold him here, he's gonna get pissed pretty quick. Pissed an uncooperative. We need to do it gently." Danny added, standing up. "Sam, let's go."

* * *

"I just can't believe she's gone." Ross Gibbard sat on the couch with his head in his hands, poised with his elbows resting on his knees. He looked like the textbook-grieving spouse.  
"We're sorry for your loss." Danny was perched in an armchair that was printed with a calm blue paisley pattern. He looked at his feet as he uttered that phrase that we had been programmed to say.  
"Oh, I'm sure you are. You sound like a robot, you didn't know her, you can't just-" He trailed off, his brief anger quickly dissolved as he was overcome with memories of his wife. "You didn't know her."  
"I know what you're going through. I know how hard this is." I said carefully, not wanting to aggravate the man any more. "Everyone's lost someone that they love."  
"I'm sorry that we can't give you more time to mourn and heal, but we need to find out the identity of your wife's killer." Danny began, speaking softly. "We have a witness that puts her with an unknown man in the parking lot when she died." Gibbard looked up, running a hand over his face in exhaustion.  
"A man?" He breathed.  
"Yes, a man that said something along the lines of having seen your wife having intimate relations with someone else." Danny phrased the fact that Mrs Gibbard was having an affair very tactfully, a skill that I knew Steve didn't have. But I liked the fact that he was impulsive. I loved the fact that Steve was impulsive. In fact, if he weren't impulsive, odd were that we wouldn't have even-  
"An affair? Meredith was having an affair?" Ross Gibbard was immediately on his feet, breaking my unprofessional train of thought. "I knew, I always knew. I confronted her many times, but she always denied it, she always-"  
"Mr Gibbard, you need to calm down and think straight. Right now, you're a suspect in the investigation." I stood up.  
"I am?"  
"If you had witnessed your wife with another man, that gives you instant motive. We can have you meet the witness, who could possibly identify you by your voice. Do you even have an alibi for the time of death?"  
"Here," Gibbard moved around the couch to an old oak desk. The sun shone though the white curtains and reflected off the surface, illuminating the pock marks and long lines in the wood, as well as a few coffee mug stains. "This is Meredith's laptop, I don't know if you can break the password on her computer, but if you can access her e-mail, or..." he stopped, fixing me with a determined stare. "I didn't kill my wife. I loved her." Danny stood up, and took the laptop from his hands, motioning at me that we should leave. Before he turned, he added:  
"She told the man in the parking lot that she loved him." Pain shot across Ross Gibbard's face. "We'll keep in touch."

* * *

"I cannot believe you said that to him, Danny." I switched off the radio, and turned to face him.  
"It's true!"  
"That does not mean that you had to tell a grieving man-"  
"He easily could have killed her!" Danny lifted his hands off the steering wheel for a split second in his trademark dramatic gesture.  
"But he could be innocent! He could be, Danny, he could just have easily lost his wife to some guy that she slept with, and you just told him that she loved this other guy!" I switched the music back on, and turned to stare straight ahead.  
"He was hiding something; I could tell he was hiding something." Danny muttered guiltily.  
"I know, I know."I sighed.  
"And he's more than capable of it, Sam, you saw how aggressive he was."  
"Yes, Danny, but the fact that someone's capable of murder doesn't mean that they have committed murder, and besides, you saw the look he got when you said that." I spoke to him softly, crossing my legs and tucking them under me.  
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."  
I raised my eyebrows at him as we approached a red light, and he turned to face me.  
"I mean it. I just think that when a man's wife loves someone else, he deserves the right to know. I didn't find out until the last second, and," He saw the light turn green, and accelerated a little too quickly. "I know what I would have preferred."  
"Danny-" I instantly forgave him for everything said.  
"It's fine, really." He smiled at me. "I'm over it," he lied.  
We sat in companionable silence for a minute, listening to the radio.  
***Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros*  
**"You and Steve," Danny began hesitantly.  
"Yes?" I was immediately on my guard.  
"Are you two?" He looked at me, and I cocked an eyebrow. "You know?"  
"Danny, you know this." The morning after Steve and I had finally gotten our heads out of our asses, we had a very frank and awkward conversation with the rest of the team.  
"Yes, you're together. But do you," He looked at me again, and I again cocked my eyebrow. "You know?"  
"Danny!"  
"Do you love him? I mean, is this serious?"  
"Of course I do. Trust me, there was much deliberation before we decided to, you know." He looked at me with understanding in his eyes.  
"He smiles a lot now." I laughed, rolling down the window and letting my fingers drift through the fast-moving air.  
"And he didn't before?" We laughed together for a second, as I rolled the window back up and settled back into my seat.  
"No. I hope you understand that." He suddenly got serious, fixing me with a stare that I would be too scared to direct at someone in the passenger seat while I was driving.  
"I do." I stared back, smiling gently. Danny cared about him; that much was simple. But Steve and I were fine, he made me happy, and I think I made him happy.  
I made him smile more than he had before.  
I made him smile.  
I rolled my seat down and smiled, and closed my eyes, and sang along softly to the song playing.

_Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma and Pa/ Moats and boats and waterfalls and pay phone calls._

**This chapter is a little shorter than before, but I didn't want to start the next section of the story. But please review and let me know if you want a chapter 3! Also, please feel free to make any suggestions about what I'm writing, what you would like to hear more about et cetera; I'm all for constructive criticism xx**


	3. Eia!

**Hello all!  
Here goes another one! Thank you so much you lovely reviewers, I always get a wonderful warm feeling whenever I read a review 3  
I've got photos of I would imagine Sam to look like, just look at the URL on my profile, if you have a picture in your head of what she would look like, feel free not to let my photos blemish your perception of Sam. **

**Disclaimer: I do not and never will make any money off of writing fan fiction. Who has ever made any money off of it? Apart from that '50 Shades of Grey' woman?**

Eiʻa!

Sunday, 24 June. 08:30 

"So what do we know?" I let my fingers trail over the tear in my jeans, fiddling, pulling, tweaking until a small thread came loose. I rolled it between my thumb and ring finger as I relayed all the personality details about the husband that we could find out to Steve as he switched off the radio and plugged in my iPod, frustrated with the radio edits of Lil' Wayne that sounded like every other word had been blacked out. Then again, every other word _had_ been blacked out.  
***Save Tonight – Eagle Eye Cherry***  
"Well, the husband has some anger issues; he was pretty quick to get hostile when we asked him questions yesterday." Steve frowned as we stopped at a red light.  
"He's running for governor, really doesn't need that on his image."  
"He's running for governor?"  
"Don't you watch the news?" He cocked his ever-ready eyebrow.  
"Evidently not."  
"Well, he had the perfect persona, pretty wife, cute kid at Gracie's school, nothing out of the ordinary, spotless record and graduate from the local high school and college. People like him; he's the favourite to win. As a matter of fact, since Mrs Gibbard's death, his popularity has increased. He's played the grieving husband card, you know?"  
"So a double motive." I ran a hand through my hair.  
"I guess so."  
"Kono's been working on her e-mail account. It was password protected, but she's working on breaking the encryption. It shouldn't be too bad." My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out, seeing Kono's ID. "She just texted me."

**Got it! Kxx**

"And?"  
"She's broken through."  
"Gibbard said he knew nothing of an affair, right?"  
"Right." I nodded as we turned into the beachfront road, teeming with tourists and locals alike.  
"And did you believe him?"  
"He looked like he was hiding something, but it could have been something else."  
"But it could have still been the lover." Steve steered the car into the HPD parking lot and parked in front.  
"Yeah. We just have to find out who he is." Steve leant in to me, taking my head in both hands and kissing me soundly, then outlining my ear with a gentle finger.  
"What was that for?" I asked as we got out and walked to the front door.  
"It's going to be a long day. I needed something to get me going." Steve laughed as I punched his arm, and pulled me close, nodding to the security guard on the way in.

* * *

"So what've we got, Kono?" Steve steered me towards Kono, who was sitting at her desk, typing furiously on a laptop and being avidly watched by Chin.  
"The usual e-mails, PTA stuff, gym membership extras, I think she subscribes to a weather forecast website," Kono shrugged. "But that's just the inbox. I'll check deleted items."  
"The husband did kinda strike me as paranoid, don't you think Sam? Odds are that she deleted the e-mails from the lover, so as to hide them from Mr Gibbard." Danny had arrived, and he moved to stand next to me, arms crossed. He wasn't wearing a tie.  
"You're not wearing a tie." Steve murmured, smirking.  
"Shut up."  
"And you're late." His smile widened.  
"Shut up Steven."  
"Yeah, I guess he did. Thing is, he seemed really eager to get us that laptop, I mean, usually the spouses of murder victims-"  
"Waffle along about respecting their loved ones' privacy even in death?" Steve cut in.  
"I wasn't going to say 'waffle', but, yes." He looked down at me, smiling cheekily again, and I leant against him ever so slightly, feeling a hand creep up to my waist.  
"And he didn't say a thing like that. He immediately jumped to his wife's affair, and wanted us to have those e-mails..." Danny was either oblivious to the PDA or was studiously ignoring us.  
"He knew about it." I confirmed.  
"And he doesn't have an alibi, right?" Steve asked.  
"Yeah, at the time of the murder, his daughter was playing her soccer match. It was the one before Grace's; he could have easily gotten up and left without anyone noticing." Chin said as he sat down next to Kono, resting his elbows tiredly on his knees.  
"Got something." Kono piped up. "An e-mail from Mr Grant Brooks."  
"I recognise that name. He teaches at the school, he's Gracie's math teacher." Danny came closer, eyebrows furrowed.  
"What does it say?" Chin pressed print, and got a copy out of the printer behind him. He read the e-mail aloud.

_Dear Meredith,  
We need to talk.  
I just can't go on seeing Ella every day, knowing that one day, she could see me as her father. This needs to end, I need you both, and I can't bear knowing that every day you go home to that man. Please, can we meet? I'm at home this afternoon.  
I love you.  
Grant._

"Looks like we've found our lover." Steve said. Kono was up in a second, getting a copy of his details out of the printer.  
"No criminal record." She passed it to Chin.  
"I've got his address; it's about ten minutes away."Chin looked up at Steve.  
"Chin, take Kono, bring the guy in, won't you?" Everyone sprang into action.  
"Danno?" Danny was still standing where he was before, looking at his feet.  
"I met him once." We all paused, looking at Danny. "He seemed great. All the kids loved him." He crossed his arms. "Looks like they weren't the only ones."

* * *

"So why were you late this morning, Danno?" We had just called Mr Gibbard and asked him to come in with his daughter, and now Steve was bored.  
"Will you give it a rest?" Danny was by the coffee station. He picked up the jar of instant, disappointed.  
"And not even enough time to muster up a tie. The humble tie, symbol of your inner and obviously outer mainlander." Danny accidentally dropped his spoon in to the jar, looking at Steve with a murderous expression.  
"Steve."  
"That girl at the coffee shop who gave you her number." Danny picked up his spoon, ignoring Steve, spooning some coffee powder into his mug and switching on the kettle.  
"Steven."  
"Am I being too far-fetched?" Steve got the sugar jar out of the cupboard and handed it to Danny.  
"SHIT! STEVEN! COULD YOU JUST NOT!" Danny put the jar a little too forcefully on to the counter, and a loud bang resonated through the office.  
"Danno, if you got a little action, it is something to be celebrated, not hid from your most caring partner." Steve backed away a couple of steps, putting his hands up warily, not wanting to be in the radius that allowed Danny's fists.  
"Steve, I assure you, I was not late this morning because of a girl over the age of eight." He put two teaspoons of sugar into his mug. The kettle had finished.  
"That sounds wrong on so many levels."  
"Grace! My daughter, Grace! She's eight! Jesus, Steve, please." Danny accidentally sloshed some boiling water onto the floor.  
"So you were late because of Grace."  
"Yes, Rachel called to ask if I could take Grace to her friend's house today, because she wanted to talk to me." Danny finished making his coffee, exhausted.  
"About?" Steve was still grinning.  
"About Meredith Gibbard's murder." The smile slid off of Steve's face in an instant.  
I was pretending to read a case file whilst listening to Steve and Danny's little spat, and proceeded to drop it once I heard that sentence exit the blond detective's mouth.  
"Are you serious?"I asked, sharing a disbelieving glance with my... boyfriend... type figure.  
"I knew you were listening." Danny muttered grimly.  
"What the fuck did your eight year old want to know about our murder case?" Steve sat down next to me.  
"She didn't want to know about the details of the case, she wanted to know about the motives of the killer."  
"What?" I picked up the case file, putting it on the desk next to me.  
"She wanted to know why Mr Gibbard or Mr Brooks would kill Mrs Gibbard." Danny pulled up a chair, and sat opposite me.  
"That's quite question from a child." Steve still sounded astonished.  
"I know." Danny rested his elbows on his knees and leant forward, head on his hands.  
"And what did you tell her?" I asked.  
"I said that it was because Mrs Gibbard loved another man, and the murderer loved her." Danny shrugged. "Simple question, simple answer."  
"She didn't have any response to that?" Steve asked.  
"She did. That's why I was late. You see, that whole conversation happened in the car, God knows how I managed not to crash into anything. But when we arrived at her friend's house," Danny paused, running a hand over his eyes. "She, uh, wanted to know why if that was the reason for the murder," Danny stopped again, seeming for once in his life not able to phrase what he wanted to say effectively. "Why I didn't want to kill her mother."  
There was a stunned silence.  
"Oh my God."  
"Yeah."  
"Because Grace can see," I murmured.  
"That I love Rachel, yes." Danny whispered. "Thankfully, I could reasonably explain that I wasn't an aggressive homicidal psychopath, which she believed." He covered his face with his hands.  
"And now you've confirmed to Grace what she knew all along," I shook my head.  
"Shit." Steve mumbled.  
"I know." Danny looked at us through the gaps between his fingers.

* * *

Kono.

"Do you even think he's still here?" Chin looked at me curiously. "I mean, it would have been on the news, buzzing around the school, I doubt that Brooks would have stayed here. He'd know that he was a suspect, wouldn't he?" I drummed my fingers on the dash.  
"We've gotta check anyway, cuz, if he's gone, I'm sure that there would be evidence to suggest where."  
"Yeah, I know." Chin pulled into the driveway of a very respectable looking cottage. The garden was neatly trimmed, plants watered, and the grass was green everywhere. There were small white flowers in boxes on the porch. We went up the few stairs, and Chin felt beneath the doormat, which featured what could easily be known as the only maths joke in existence.

Find x:  
68 ÷ 2=4+6x _** here!**_

"Oh my God." I stared down at the doormat.  
"He is a math teacher." Chin chuckled as he found the spare key in amongst the small white flowers.  
"Guess so." The cottage itself was red face brick-not the cheap looking kind, the cute kind, and as Chin unlocked the door, the cottage revealed to be face brick on the inside as well. The sash windows were painted white, and the floors were a varnished wood. Mr Brooks seemed to be an avid art and old furniture collector, as there was no available space on any of the walls, and none of the decor looked new. There was a small dining table with four mismatched chairs, and on the wall behind it were eight framed photographs of a class of small children surrounding an aging teacher that I recognised from his driving licence's photo.  
"Mr Brooks? Grant?" I called out, drawing my gun. Chin moved into what I supposed would be a bedroom, and I went into the open plan kitchen, making sure that Brooks wasn't hiding behind the half wall separating it from the lounge.  
"Bedroom and bathroom clear!" I heard Chin, and replied.  
"No one in the kitchen." Chin came out of the bedroom.  
"There wasn't a car in the driveway, I'll phone dispatch and put a BOLO out on his car. Anything out of the ordinary?" He asked.  
"Nope. No evidence that he was dragged out, or anything like that. Everything seems to be in order." I looked around once more, checking to see if anything looked suspicious.  
"So I guess he's on the run."  
"Looks like we've got a new number one suspect."

**Case is heating up, eh?  
Oh, by the way, Chapter 1 was called 'Goal' and Chapter 2 was called 'Game Plan'. This chapter is called "Here!" Please don't criticise my Hawaiian, I just typed the words into a translator and it spat these out.  
I'm looking forward to hear any suggestions for improvement or remarks on what I've done that you'd like to read more of, please leave a review, no matter how short or unoriginal you may think it is, it will brighten my day, and make me update faster! Thank you lovelies xx  
**


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